The vast divide between Trump's private and public comments on immigration

I loved the moment during President Trump's State of the Union address when he announced that the Department of Homeland Security was setting up an office to publicize victims of illegal alien crime. The gasps and moans from the Democrats were very audible. I also loved how Trump talked about building a wall and enforcing the law.

But President Trump's public comments on immigration were markedly different from his private ones. Just ahead of the State of the Union he met with the press in a private meeting and multiple sources (The New York Times, ABC News, CNN) all reported the same thing: that Trump thought the time was right to legalize the "Dreamers". From the NYT:

Mr. Trump broke from his tough immigration stance in a conversation with news anchors just hours before he spoke and said he was open to a the kind of broad overhaul that many Republicans and some of his core supporters have derided as “amnesty.”

“The time is right for an immigration bill as long as there is compromise on both sides,” the president told the TV anchors at the White House, according to people present during the discussion.

But Mr. Trump made only glancing reference to a broad immigration overhaul in his speech, calling for a new “merit-based” system that only admits those able to support themselves financially, and never mentioning legalization of undocumented people. Overall, his speech held to the tough-on-immigration theme that marked his campaign.

Hours before the speech, Mr. Trump went so far on Tuesday as to raise the idea of granting citizenship to young undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children, one person present said. Such a change would go well beyond the temporary work permits President Barack Obama offered them through a 2012 executive order.

During his campaign, Mr. Trump criticized Mr. Obama’s directive as an “illegal amnesty,” and promised he would immediately end the program if elected.

If true, this would mean that Trump was not honest with his supporters on one of his most important promises. It calls into question his integrity.

What Trump is proposing to do is to go beyond even what Obama did. What's worse, he's not even willing to wait until the border is secured. Even as we speak, every day new "Dreamers" sign up under the Trump "Dreamer" program, which he took ownership of when he became president.

I thought the idea was to at least secure the border first, and then talk about what to do about those who remained here. Evidently President Trump feels that there is no need to wait.

This turnabout, if true, is disastrous for several reasons. It makes absolutely no sense to deport illegal alien parents but to let their children stay here. By offering the kids amnesty now, before a border wall is built, before the nation is secure, Trump is making the US a magnet for illegals, especially unaccompanied minors, just as Obama did. By giving up this concession now, Trump has left no bargaining chips to negotiate with Democrats, should he need their votes.

Most distressing is that Trump is saying one thing in private and another in public. With multiple sources confirming this story and a lack of denial from the White House, it is hard to believe it is not true. If true, it shows Trump being the ultimate cynic and not having the courage to state his true beliefs to the American public who elected him. That's always been my biggest problem with Trump--his lack of integrity and consistent belief system.

The PBS Newshour, which I love for telling me what to think and when to think it, had a piece yesterday about a black lesbian woman who claimed she couldn't get a mortgage because racist banks wouldn't lend to a black person. When her Japanese lesbian partner applied for a loan, however, she quickly got it.CONTINUE READING

In a closed door meeting President Trump repeatedly asked Congressmen to raise the gax tax. President Trump is so eager to raise taxes that he even volunteered to take the blame for it:CONTINUE READING

For years the "gold standard" for treating clogged arteries of the heart was to perform very invasive surgery to insert a small plastic tube, or stent, into the clogged artery to reduce the blockage. It sounds like common sense, doesn't it?CONTINUE READING

President Trump has proposed replacing some food stamp grants with actual food. This has curiously enraged liberals, who you would think would be delighted to see "hungry" people getting food. The program in question is called "SNAP", which I think, due to repeated accounts of fraud, is more appropriately called SUCK (Stealing Unearned Cash Knowingly).CONTINUE READING

The liberal media, which bills itself as non-partisan, is running especially rabid now that President Trump has released his budget containing modest proposed cuts for certain agencies. Looking at the ferocity of the biased headlines, I wonder what the headlines would look like if Trump's name were replaced with Obama, as well as adjusting for circumstances.CONTINUE READING

Would it surprise you to learn that there is not just one or two but dozens of studies examining the psychological effects of enforcing the law against illegal aliens? Apparently, enforcing immigration law causes all kinds of effects on illegal aliens; it makes them anxious, depressed, and, according to one study, victims of post traumatic stress disorder.CONTINUE READING

In addition to being a an enormously bloated deficit busting spending bill, the two year budget that President Trump signed allocates zero dollars for construction of a border wall for the next two years. So unless Mexico suddenly writes us a check, there will be not an inch constructed of a new border wall three full years into President Trump's term of office.CONTINUE READING

Imagine if you were poor and you got Medicaid, heavily subsidized by the taxpayer, but you had to pay between $1 and $15 a month in premiums. Wouldn't that be confusing? For many people it is so confusing that they don't understand how to pay and end up being kicked off Medicaid.CONTINUE READING

Senator Rand Paul succeeded in briefly shutting down the government last night when he demanded a vote on restoring the budget spending caps before voting on the GOP deficit busting bill. By the time you read this, however, it is expected that a coalition of Democrats and RINO Republicans will have succeeded in passing a monstrosity of a budget bill which, although it will increase defense spending, will also increase domestic spending by hundreds of billions of dollars over the coming years, and is estimated to create a 1.2 trillion dollar deficit in 2019. That's $1,200,000,000,000 added to the debt in one year alone.CONTINUE READING

The budget agreement reached by the Republican House and Republican Senate would increase spending over 500 billion dollars over the next two years. It does not appear to cut a penny from domestic spending; in fact, along with military increases, it increases domestic spending by hundreds of billions of dollars.CONTINUE READING

One of the many conspiracy theories floating around to justify President Trump's call for citizenship for 1.8 million illegal aliens is that Trump will vet them thoroughly and permit a number far less than 1.8 million to be granted citizenship.CONTINUE READING

The liberal media is going ga-ga over the upcoming superhero movie "Black Panther". What makes Black Panther different from other Marvel films is that the protagonist, as well as most of the cast, are black, and Africa is portrayed as a super technologically advanced continent filled with spaceships. As of this writing the film has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. What are the odds of every single film reviewer agreeing on this film... or any film?CONTINUE READING

Barbara Comstock is a GOP congresswoman from Northern Virginia. Political scientists appropriately call her district "marginal", rather than "wholesome", because it is infested with a growing number of leftists, ideologically toxic fallout blown westwards from the work-free drug zone of Washington D.C.CONTINUE READING

Kisses can mean many different things to different people. Parents usually kiss their kids on the cheek. But when Dads give long, hard, passionate kisses on the lips to their sons, there is something more than a little homoerotic about it:CONTINUE READING